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In the past year or so I’ve become familiar with (or addicted to, depending on how you look at it) Instagram. It’s making me increasingly aware of fortuitous instagram fame. It’s hard to avoid the draw of social media with commentary such as, “Follow me on Insta!” or “Do you follow so-and-so?” and my personal favorite, “Do you see how many followers [person] has?” Being in both the yoga and circus communities, I was delighted with this new tool to connect with people all over the world who share my passions. While my communities were growing to international proportions, I began to notice an interesting meld of circus and yoga, mainly in the area of contortion. As these two forms of physical expression overlap they seem to be simultaneously driving a wedge between their respective communities, trainers, teachers, and students. As a yoga practitioner and professional contortionist and trainer, I decided to do a little research and help define the difference between these two practices.

Naturally, the beginning seemed like a good place to start. Perhaps in the history of one the other would emerge? During my research I found some surprising and fascinating information around the origins of contortionism and yoga. The history of yoga is rich and fairly well mapped; however, the history of contortionism turned out to be a bit more nebulous. My theory as to why is rooted in the traveling show, which was often times comprised of the “lower class” or more importantly, persons without reading and writing comprehension. Back in the days without internet, if you didn’t write then did it even happen? There are some records though so I’ll do my best to piece things together for you!

Knowing a bit of history behind both contortion and yoga, it’s easy to see how they might be confused; both require regular practice and/or training regimens, both are physical expressions of strength and flexibility, there is often times a teacher, trainer, or school, and even the poses look a similar. The thin line continues to blur as pictures and videos go viral on social media with no real distinction between practices. So, what’s the real difference between yoga and contortion?

As a yogi and contortionist, the distinction seems to be clear to me: contortion is a performance art and yoga is a wellness practice. While there are contortionists who practice yoga and yogis who train contortionism, they seem to live, for now, in different worlds with different intentions. Still confused? It’s ok. Come with me and we’ll take a look at the difference between a modern yoga practice and modern contortion training.

Unlike stretching or fitness, yoga is more than just physical postures. Patanjali’s eight-fold path illustrates how the physical practice is just one aspect of yoga. Even within the physical practice, yoga is unique because we connect the movement of the body and the fluctuations of the mind to the rhythm of our breath. Connecting the mind, body, and breath helps us to direct our attention inward. Through this process of inward attention, we learn to recognize our habitual thought patterns without labeling them, judging them, or trying to change them. We become more aware of our experiences from moment to moment. The awareness that we cultivate is what makes yoga a practice, rather than a task or a goal to be completed.

As a yoga practitioner, every class that I teach encompases the mind-body connection with a focus on the breath. When I teach and when I practice yoga, my intention is less on how I look or how a pose is executed (although still important for physical safety), and more on mental clarity and the peace of mind I gain though the expression of a pose. Most yoga classes end in a seated meditation or a lying meditation called savasana for that reason.​ Contortion on the other hand is a bit different. There is definitely no savasana at the end of training! Wikipedia describes contortion as “...a performance art in which performers, contortionists, showcase their skills of extreme physical flexibility.” Mirriam-Webster defines a contortionist as “an acrobat able to twist the body into unusual postures… a performer who twists his or her body into unusual positions."The keywords that stand out are “performance”, “performer”, and “showcase”. More specifically, contortionism is a performance art in which a contortionist creates a routine with a concept and/or character to showcase specific poses and transitions developed over hundreds of hours of strength and flexibility training. In a 2011 NY Times article on the Contorture contortion training program, the comparison between yoga and contortion was described simply:

When training in a contortion class, students work on a few specific poses, or styles of poses such as back bending or splits. Often times, students will hold a pose for several minutes and repeat a pose while trainers incorporate various exercises to build strength into their flexibility. For most contortionists, the goal is to execute the pose or transition with skill and grace. Additionally, some trainers will include hand balancing, acrobatics, tumbling, and/or dance in their contortion classes. Although many classes include a warmup and conditioning period before and after class, you will find that most contortion classes focus specifically on a few poses, and variations there of. As a professional contortionist and trainer, the difference between my yoga and contortion class is palpable. You feel it in the air as soon as you walk into the room. In my contortion class there won’t be any soft spoken meditation or breath work. You can look forward to grunts, groans, and being physically pushed by yours truly to the edge of your flexibility and strength. We end with conditioning, not savasana.

At the end of the day, contortion is a performance art and yoga is a holistic health practice. Contortionists can practice yoga, and yogis can practice contortion. Will there continue to be confusion on social media? Yeah, sure. However, hopefully you’ll be able to move forward with a little more awareness and understanding of the difference between these two practices, and hopefully yogis and contortionists alike will be able to respect the other’s practice without the temptation to blend them into one without distinction. Now excuse me, I have some #notyoga contortion posts to make on Instagram.

Great work, this much-needed piece should be considered fundamental required reading for contortion and yoga students.

Reply

Selia Something

4/26/2017 09:40:35 pm

Wow, what high praise! Thank you so much Sara, I truly appreciate it. Hopefully this is just the first step toward more scholarly information being researched and shared on the practice of contortion. *fingers crossed*